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Let’s Bend an Elbow for the Seniors

Whether they are multiple year starters or constant bench-warmers I always look at the departing senior football players with fondness. Most have been with the team for a full four years; some have stuck around for that fifth red shirt season, but all of them gave Pitt their best.

We have some seniors who were highly rated recruits. Some are kids who walked on and busted ass to make a space for themselves on the roster and some are seniors who came to Pitt via transfers and had a shot at playing time that way.

However they got here and whatever they did here let’s send them off with our thanks. As you can see from the table below we have a lot of solid contributors who will be leaving after this season. At least 11 of those kids were solid starters for us.

We’ll have a lot of time over the offseason to discuss which underclassmen are going to fleet up and take some of those vacant starters’ spaces but I did want to take a moment and recognize these young men who stuck with it and finished out at Pitt. Most of these kids had two head coaches – Ejuan Price had three. If you remember Old Man Price played in all of 2011’s games as a true freshmen under Todd Graham.

Of course they all had a ton of staff coaching changes to go along with different faces in the athletic department and in the Pitt administration.

One thing I think is interesting to do is to look back at when these players were HS seniors and to see how much they physically grew while at Pitt. For instance: Terrish Webb – 5’11” 170 to 5’11” 195 (+25 lbs), while on the other end of the scale Jeremiah Taleni went from 315 lbs to 290 (-25 lbs).

Let’s congratulate those seniors and redshirt seniors who stuck it out and finished their college careers at Pitt. Let’s hope just as many have their degrees when they leave also. These Pitt seniors aren’t lacking in the awards arena either. Here are just a few:

Adam Bisnowaty and Mike Caprara pulled in recognition for their off-field accomplishments also.

Pitt offensive lineman Adam Bisnowaty and linebacker Mike Caprara are among the 30 candidates for the 2016 Senior CLASS Award in college football.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I FBS senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Here is the Pitt Athletic Department’s Football website. Take a look at the news releases – you’ll see for yourselves what these young men have accomplished as the list is extensive. Hell, we could write a book on James Conner himself (which I’m sure is in the works as we speak).

Plus we are looking at some future NFL players on that list. I usually don’t put a lot of stock in who makes an NFL team as opposed to how well they played at Pitt – DB Lafayette Pitts is a good example of that, but I think Bisnowaty, Price, Orndoff, Johnson and maybe Peterman will have a shot at the next level.

Another interesting point, at least for me, is just how many recruits from the original recruiting classes actually finished out their four or five years depending at Pitt. For instance here is the ‘original’ Rivals.com 2012 recruiting class; in it you can see that over 50% (9 0f 16) recruits didn’t play a full four years at Pitt:

Players in red left the program early

Pretty crappy that the top three recruits quit the team on us although Voytik transferred which is a nicer way of saying he left the team. That was a lot of talent on paper and we only got one single starting year out of it.

Which is why I continually say that talking about recruits and recruiting and trying to project years in advance before these kids actually suit up and are on the team for at least a year or two doesn’t mean anything. As shown around half won’t contribute anyway.

You might point to the numerous coaching changes for that and I’m sure it was a factor for that particular 2012 class but if you look back historically you’ll see that right around a 40%-50% attrition rate for any class of recruits is normal.

Later on we’ll discuss the red shirt Seniors coming up in 2017 and whether or not their scholarships may be on the chopping block as they sometimes are, but for right now I think a loud “Thank you” to these Pitt Seniors are in order.

The best things I point out with this group, the high graduation rate, the NON athletic post season awards they’ve garnered and the lack of off field transgressions during their days as Panthers. This is just a solid group of student athletes that are now prepared to get on with their lives as mature, conscientious adults & good citizens, thanks to their experiences at Pitt.

Of course, I include Conner in with this Senior group since he’s also graduating as well. The biggest loss to the team won’t be the departing player’s talent, it will soon be obvious that Narduzzi has recruited better athletes in general to replace those moving on. Rather it will be the loss of “leadership” that these men provided, THAT will be difficult to replace.

Dr. Tom..your last comment is so true..this team had several strong leaders Mr.Conner, Mr. Price. Mr. Galambos, Mr Johnson and Mr. Bisnowaty…one thing I can say about this coaching staff is they have these guys playing as a team..in an era that has a lot of self-centered characters…that TEAM effort was seen all year, win or lose these kids played for one another…this is the bunch that will be remembered for ushering in a new era of PITT football.

BigB you picked up the PA aspect as I did. Most of these kids are Pittsburgh area or PA kids. If we are to compete at a higher level I am expecting to see this change to include other states. Get the best available, not just the local.

Having said that, what a great bunch of young men that gave the university and us fans/alums a lot to cheer for and be proud of. I wish them all the best in whatever their next steps in life hold.

Wow, what a terrific group of men! I am proud of these guys the way they have represented our great University. At the end of the day, maintaining the integrity of the program and developing these kinds of good people who represent all of us on a national level means everything. If a championship is included at some point, fine. If not, then so be it. It is not the football, basketball, etc. program that defines my degree and what that ultimately means to me to be a Pitt Grad. H2P!

Speaking of PITT grads, I read where Charles Smith maybe interested in the PITT AD job. Spotted at the PITT game last night and it’s been said he’s been around the campus during the past week or so. Could be someone adding up 1 + 1 and coming up with bupkis. Nothing……………………..ike

To our graduating class, thank you for your loyalty and hard work on behalf of our University.

Concerning last nights basketball game. Very exciting and great O play and rebounding! Personally, I really enjoy watching Stallings style of play and also deeply appreciate his transparency and sincerity during the post game pressers. He has a hard road ahead as he has to totally rebuild the team with incoming recruits. His recruiting will either make him or break him.
Stallings is clearly a Pittsburgh kind of down to earth guy. Upitt buddy, you should at least give him a few years to bring in new players – he has earned at least that much!

Ty Reed. This senior class has a strong place in my heart. They weathered storms as young men & gave the new staffs what they asked for best they could. Every day. I have had the pleasure of bumping into a few of them over the years (namely Biz, TJ & the artist formerly known as Tank (#40) now known rightfully so by all JC- #24) – just in passing around the east end – Biz dog walking, TJ & Tank walking down the hill after a home hoops game or out & about on the high school hoops scene. they came in as great kids & they leave oakland with the world in front of them as men. Really enjoyed watching them do their thing. Wish them all the best. H2P

So few defensive players in the class and guys are still blaming Conklin. 19 offensive guys and 8 defensive if you count Conner. Soto really ineffective till this year. Hard to imagine defensive recruiting being any worse and gives a better understanding of why the offense was so strong.

Out of the eight guys, Moody, MacClean and Howard washed out, Conner went to offense. Guys that actually made a positive impact on D were Jarrett, Galambos and Soto and a little from Taleni, well maybe a lot considering Clemson. Webb also moved from WR to Safety, not exactly a stand out performer according to game day threads. So tell me again, why the defense should have been better?

Hey gc, that sounds reasonable enough to me. Although I’m not really sure if Chryst recruited more for the offense or just couldn’t get enough defensive players to commit? Either way, your post sounds very reasonable to me..

So lets look at next years senior defenders, Zeise, Motley, Roy, Maddox, Blair, Briggs, Folston, Herndon, Wirginis, and Williams. So 10 guys, how many impact players? Any All America, any All ACC? Face it, Chryst’s defensive recruiting was abysmal.

Limo driver…was furious w Cook also this morning. What a dick! Pitt wins best game in 4 years and he writes about Dixon. Great article by zeiss today late. Very positive about how much fun it is to watch Pitt ball under Stallings.

gc – the recruiting has been poor for more than just the last three years. Back in 2010 we had a 34th class, in 2011 it was 64th and in 2012 it was 49th – those recruits were players on Pitt defenses that were way better than this 2016 defense was.

Look – when you have a DC who had a poor defense his first year and a horrid one the second – you don’t start blaming only the players. We had players pointing fingers at each other and looking toward the sideline right before the snap because they didn’t understand the defensive play calls. That happened a lot.

This is what Conklin’s teams have averaged in pass defense in the last four years; 68th nationally giving up 245 ypg and 23 TDs per game. That includes the last 2 years of his FIU time.

But the killer was Conklin’s allowing nine (9) more ppg this year than last. That is a huge amount of extra points to give up and was the same amount more than House’s last Pitt defense.

The bottom line is that he hasn’t been a very good DC at all. This would actually a have been a perfect time to switch DCs had Canada not bagged out already; Narduzzi is in the fans & admins good graces – he’s under contract for four more years and the defense is as bad as it can possibly get. There is nowhere to go but up with a new DC.

I really don’t get the apologizing fans are making for Conklin – again and your insistence that our offense actually lost us a couple games is crazy (in a nice way that crazy can be).

I don’t think we’ll see an OC until close to or after LOI Day and after the first round of coaches conferences get going. I may be wrong but I don’t see us making any sort of a splash hire there at all.

An informal media interview session for five newly enrolled members of the Pitt football team will be held on Friday, January 6, at 11 a.m., at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. The interviews will be held in the second-floor team meeting room (press conference room).

Web highlighted a lot of recruiting holes. It’s not all about stars. Half of recruiting is fielding a balanced class and replacing grad losses each year. Of course the music comes with finding the three star kids that aren’t going to wash out. Hcpc was pretty good at doing that on offense. Too early to tell but I bet the duzz is pretty good at doing it on defense.

Also I saw one and only one encouraging thing from my perch in the northwestern student section during the bowl game (my brother is an alum and we flipped sides at halftime). Our db’s made not one but two plays on the ball to force incompletions after dinucci’s first int. Got us the ball back for one more chance to score. That alone is enough to keep hope burning in the offseason…

I just think that after a season where an unnaturally prolific offense won 8 games for us it is kind of scary to think we may have the same defense WITHOUT the same high scoring on the other side of the ball.

If we give up 35 ppg next year and drop back to an average offense – let’s say around 26-28 ppg we are screwed.

IMO Conklin was and still is expendable and I didn’t see one thing in two years that made me think he wasn’t. As TX above says Conklin is average at best and I think that is a reach.

Look, if we want Pitt to win championships that means we should take bold steps to do so. Keeping a DC who has put two lousy products out on the field is same old, same old…

Coming off two 8 win seasons is the time to do just that – make bold moves.

Sorry Reed, just not buying it. Its like comparing the test results of Pittsburgh Public School teachers to the results of the Upper Saint Clair teachers. It has a little bit to do with what you have to work with.

I just don’t think we can judge Conklin in a vacuum. We both have watched a lot of football. Could another coach have gotten better results with the players we have. It is certainly possible. But compare Johnny Majors I with Johnny Majors II, did he just get that much dumber? did the game pass him by? Maybe, but I say it had more to do with the caliber of the players than anything else.

I still say it was the offense that let us down against OKST, UNC and Northwestern. The defense doesn’t have to pitch a shutout, they just have to give up one less point than the offense puts on the board. That is the only statistic that really counts.

It is the players that make the plays. Yes coaching can make a difference but only marginally. Every great offense or defense you remember coincides with the great players and great plays they made.

There have been very few great players on the defensive side for a long time. Aaron Donald is the only one I can name. It takes a whole bunch to make a great defense.

Conklin seems to be a decent recruiter, if he gets the right guys, he will be a lot better coordinator than he has been the last two years. If there is no improvement next year I may join your bandwagon.

Let’s take Dick LeBeau, one of the greatest D-Coordinator of all times, but what happened when Polamalu didn’t play or when his line and linebackers got old? What happened when Chuck Noll’s players got old?

Hats off to the seniors. They played their hearts out, win or lose.I wish them all the best. These kids had a rough time with all the coach changing. Hope the new class helps us move up and onward. H2P

@ gc, come on man, our defense failed us big time in both the OK St. & the UNC games. In fact, just one stop out of the three forth down conversions that the Tarheels made on their final winning drive gives that game to the Panthers.

The NW loss was on the Pitt offense though. You can’t get seven red zone opportunities and score only 17 points out of those. & I’m not even considering the turnovers.

Now, don’t forget however that the biggest Pitt win in years was built on the back of a very gritty defensive performance by the Panthers. 3 Pitt INTs and a 3rd/4th stand when the Tigers needed a yard is pretty awesome stuff for such a maligned defense to pull off on a team like Clemson. Whitehead’s 100 yard scamper with that goal line fumble recovery not even in the cards. That was one great game to have experienced in person!

Oregon State: Jason Phillips will join the staff as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator, the program has announced. Phillips coached the wide receivers at Kansas last season, and the two seasons prior to that as the co-offensive coordinator at SMU.

Reed, I really hope you’re wrong on the OC announcement occurring after LOI, that would suck and reek of SOP. Also I would think that the delay in announcing the OC decreases the likelihood that it is Salem. If it was, why wait ?

I have to agree with gc….Conklin is too good a recruiter and is our sole leg into Florida for recruiting and he’s getting guys. Conklin & Salem are our best recruiters and Conklin is recruiting the kid in the ND article I posted.

I want to see Conklin’s defense in the 2018 season.

I like UPitts idea, but you can’t very well demote him to LB coach. You’ll lose even more assistants.

Right, Blount left the Steelers mid-game after playing previously with NE, who had just had a rash of injuries with their running backs…..and likely facing the Steelers later on that year in the playoffs. Pretty slick move wouldn’t you say?

Both units need to deliver down the stretch of a game to win. Both units failed to do that at Chapel Hill.
Peterman made bad throws to extend drives late; the D couldn’t keep Switzer from catching the ball.

In the Penn State game, its popular to blame the D for almost giving up the game. As I recalled, Conner coughed up the ball deep in our own end in Q4 and Blewitt…blew one.

It was great that the O was prolific this year, but it’s important to be able to put an opponent away and win a game late.

And the O shit the bed at Yankee Stadium in Q1. You could feel the momentum move from left field the right field as it happened. Pitt could have built a sizeable lead in the 1st quarter and perhaps broken the spirit of NW. Instead they were given life.

It’s great discussion to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each unit, but I’m not buying arguments that one unit or the other was the cause of our losses.

Of the many things I enjoy about college sports, one of the best is watching kids grow and develop during their 4-5yrs at school. I’ve really enjoyed watching these kids do just that. Some are gifted athletes,some are average, but one has to admire the sacrifice they all make to play in games over a 16 week period each fall.

I raise a glass and wish them all the best no matter what path they take in life. Let’s hope we can keep rooting for a few of them at the next level.

@gc-the dairy college bounced back because they play an incredibly easy ooc schedule and reside in the easiest power conference in football. This has been Ohio states secret for years. When you schedule like that, you typically have three tough games. Win 2 of the 3 and you find yourself in the playoff. Easy ooc schedule doesn’t penalize the team.

Contrare. The team and individual players gain confidence by beating poor teams. Players pad their stats. Great plan and Pitt should seriously consider an easier ooc schedule. Please don’t give me the “fans won’t go crap”. The same base fans will go. Schedule easier. Get wins. Get better recruits. Then start to schedule tougher. The ACC schedule will always keep us in a top 50 strength of schedule.

@Reed- would be nice to see who graduated from Pitt in your list. Has Conner graduated? It still stokes me when I hear Larry Fitzgerald say he is a Phoenix.

I am a Tressel supporter for AD. He is solid and wants to show the rest of the world that he is a winner. And he is! And a fund raiser.

gc,
Just figured it out. “gc” is actually your name:
“George Conklin”! LOL!
Don’t blame you for sticking up for your sad excuse of a D.C. son!!!
Ha!
By the way, even an honest Dad has to admit that having the 127th ranked Passing D out of 128 sucks, even if he is your boy! He’s in charge of the defense and the buck stops with him

Why is everyone ignoring the schedule we played this year? Did everyone notice what PSU, OK St, Miami, GT, Va Tech, Clemson, etc did in their bowl games against good competition this year? McSorely, Rudolph, Kaaya, Trubisky, and Evans will all be playing in the NFL.

To prove what a schedule means, look at our 2014 results …. we didn’t play against one good offensive team (or QB) the entire 1st half of the schedule with most points given up was 25 vs FIU. Then, all of a sudden, we faced good offenses and gave up 56, 51 and 40 on consecutive weeks.

Another thought …. Wisconsin had the 7th ranked defense this year, and PSU scored 35 in the B1G championship (the only good passing attack they faced all year.)

Our defense was bad this year … no doubt … but it is much more than poor coaching. Like I said, if the defense doesn’t come around by late October 2017, then we have coaching issues.

in the NFL with all of the rule changes of the last 30 years, the success of most teams is in direct correlation with the performance of its QB. Tomlin gets a lot of blame when the Steelers look bad against sub-par teams .. but when Big Ben stinks, the Stillers stink … and when he is good, so are the Stillers..

Yes, Patriots started out 3 and 1 w/o Brady this year, but look at the QBs they had to defend. For that matter, look at all the great(?) QBs they had to face in AFC East this entire millennium. One stinker after another.

I watched a lot of the pass defenders during the bowl games, and I could not help noticing that most of those kids defended exactly as Pitt kids did: not turning around, touching the receivers before the ball arrived, bumping the receiver past five yards downfield, grabbing a jersey, looping an arm behind a receiver, and only sometimes being called for interference. Many of the defenders were shorter than the receivers they covered. Ohio State, Penn State, USC in particular. Great teams playing against great passers. Poor Pitt kids got called every time, it seemed. Ohio State and Penn State got the interference calls against them in their bowl games. Penn State’s happened at the end of the game directly to contribute to their loss. Maybe getting away with it for much of the season caught up with them.. Maybe the coaching of defenders is the same all over college football. Not getting caught based on your reputation maybe has something to do with being perceived as being great at defending the pass. Pass defense has to be one of the hardest things for kids to master in this age of the spread offenses and pass dominant offenses. Just an observation. I may be full of it, but those kids from other teams defending passes looked just like Pitt kids.

don’t know all the rules … but an official visit includes meals and board, and travel. Unofficial visits are when the player pays his expenses. He can still make contacts with coaches and be shown around, and have access to facilities, but is not reimbursed.

Each recruit has up to 5 official visits, if he so chooses (5 different schools that is.)

Justin … those are excellent observations. Keep in mind, in the college game, you are allowed to bump receivers more than 5 yards downfield if you are in front of the receiver, as long as the ball is not yet in the air (and you aren’t holding). Frankly, I think being shorter is an advantage as a pass defender, because it makes it easier to keep your hand on a receivers hip pocket or otherwise making some of the clutching and grabbing more subtle. Of course, if you are too slow to stay in the receivers hip pocket, then forget that idea. But I think that’s why you see many of these teams, Pitt included, having shorter cover guys. But saying all that, it doesn’t change the fact that if our secondary did a better job on just a few plays here and there, Pitt would have won another couple games. The coaching staff is going to have to find ways to improve, and there is no simple solution.

Of course, I forgot that I could Google it. Here is what I found—–According to the NCAA, when you are invited on an official visit, “the college can pay for transportation to and from the college for you, lodging and meals…for you and your parents or guardians, as well as reasonable entertainment expenses, including three tickets to a home sports event.”

I just figure all of you are at least as good as Google. Plus, Upitt makes it way more fun than Google.

Yep web, pass rush is huge. Even Tom Brady has difficulty throwing with a defensive tackle or end running right in front of him. But I think you will see more teams do what VT did to us … the QB took a shotgun snap and then the just threw the ball up for a jump ball about 20 yards downfield — it’s essentially impossible to have a pass rush when the throw happens so fast.

Wow, the cabbie and Dan are awfully thin skinned. The Cook article is written because TCU is playing WVU (a team with regional fan appeal and top 10 ten ranking) in Morgantown this weekend. The article notes Dixon’s support for Tomlin and criticism from Bradshaw . Dixon graciously deflects criticism from his former players. Dixon says he still loves Pitt and Pittsburgh and talks about connections he still has. The article talks about what Dixon is attempting to accomplish at TCU. The article also notes that Dixon will once again be facing Huggins for the first time in years. Both battled for several years in the old Big East The feature is entirely timely, relevant and nostalgic in a non-fawning way.

Interesting side note is that WVU beat UVA at Charlottesville by 9 last month.

Dan you made it quite clear a while ago that you didn’t care for Dixon and support Stallings. The Zeise puffer should be all the sweets you or the cabbie need for one day. I do agree with Zeise that JD’s adherence to his “style” was not working with this particular group of players. I feel this is particularly true of Artis who has never proven to be a fan of playing solid defense and tends to tank when shots aren’t falling. Young also prone to this. It’s tough to coach a team when your two best, consistent scorers, and de facto team leaders, aren’t buying into your strategy.

A solid group of football seniors leaving. Great job guys and congratulations!

I do agree with the premise that shear numbers of defensive players could have made for a better probable outcome. That’s really the point of recruiting more, better rated players. We shouldn’t get totally caught up on stars. I just can’t believe that a defensive “genius” like HCPN couldn’t coach up the past four year’s worth of recruits (1 full year of his and part of the last Chyrst class) over what we saw last season. These guys aren’t stiffs.